


DEADGIRL IN THE POOL

by alondra (alaundry)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Original Character Death(s), Psychological Horror, Sad Ending, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:20:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23616646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alaundry/pseuds/alondra
Summary: girl goes to party.girl sees something she shouldn't have.girl wakes up soaked.
Kudos: 4





	1. summer tan

**Author's Note:**

> HEAVY CONTENT WARNING: THERE IS A LOT OF SWEARING, DRUG USE, AND MENTIONED/IMPLIED SEXUAL ABUSE. PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

“Lighten up! Seriously,  _ God _ , when are you gonna get another chance to go to a party like this, Aurelia? It’s your  _ senior year _ !”

Her voice would have echoed against the cool night sky had it not been for the blasting music coming from inside the villa in front of them. The curtains were closed, but not very opaque, as the two girls could easily discern the red, blue, green, and yellow strobe lights passing through the fibers. 

_ No way the cops aren’t gonna show up. Someone’s gonna call them... a neighbor? _

“It’s just… I’ve got a lot of projects due, soon,” Aurelia answered, volume never above a mumble. Her eyes darted back and forth between the friend that had dragged her here and then back to the house which had seemed to come alive with the music, rocking up and down and creaking. 

She heard a splash in the distance, followed by screeching laughter and clapping.

Kristen’s attention was elsewhere, on a boy waving to her from the front lawn, which was littered with empty Budweiser cans and Red Solo cups. The whole sight was an antithesis to Aurelia’s normal scene, but she followed her friend like an injured puppy regardless. 

“Jace! How’s it going, dude?”

“Pretty dope now that you’re here! C’mon, we’ve got brownies in the oven and karaoke in the living room!”

Once they got closer, Aurelia noticed that Jace had a cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth. Just looking at the smoke curling up from the burning end had her coughing, but she held it back with her elbow and aching lungs. 

He peered at her over his brooding sunglasses, blue eyes swimming with… 

_ Was that disdain? _

Kristen probably exchanged a few more words with Jace, tossing her hair and leaning against the stained picket fence while she did. It took them what felt like ten minutes to finish their conversation. 

_ Not fast enough. _

Aurelia took a tentative step past the gate, following Kristen into the house. The environment was just what she expected and a surprise simultaneously. The air smelled both acrid and sour, both bitter and sugary. Bodies were smashing up against each other like sardines in a pulsing can filled with strobe lights; there was probably more smoke in the air than oxygen at this point.

Kristen turned to face Aurelia and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Okay, listen. I’m going to the pool to hang out with Isaac. You heard Jace; there’s brownies in the kitchen and whatever in the living room. You’re my DD, though, so try not to drink too much.”

_ She knows that’s not gonna be a problem.  _

“Am I not allowed to hang out with you and… Isaac?”

Kristen sighed, pushing a hand through her brown hair and holding her bangs back. “I mean, you can if you want, I just… it might be awkward, you know? I might get the chance to  _ suck face _ later.”

Aurelia cringed internally.  _ There’s no better way to say that? Why can’t she just say ‘make out’? ‘Seven minutes in Heaven’? _

“Fine. I’ll just be inside, come find me when you want to go home,” she answered finally, breathing out a sigh of her own when her friend broke their contact and practically skipped out the back door, pushing past partygoers like an everyday occurrence. It probably was; in the halls at school, Kristen treated everyone like an obstacle to shove aside.

For a few moments after she’d been abandoned, Aurelia just kind of stood there, surrounded by shouting and intoxicated teenagers spilling their drinks. 

_ Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they started foaming at the mouth. _

Eventually, she did make her way towards the kitchen, settling for leaning against a wall close to the island countertop, where a few boys were chattering amongst each other and munching on some of the aforementioned chocolate brownies. Aurelia felt like she could melt into the wall pressed against her soft shoulder blades, eyes shutting for just a second.

She opened them again when she felt a body brush past in front of her. Jace.

Aurelia noticed him immediately, following his movements with keen brown eyes. He shouldn’t have been, but he was watching her as he moved past, raking her with his own eyes.

_ … Jesus.  _

As soon as she was about to turn around to exit the house through the back door, she heard a gritty voice call out from the kitchen: “Amelia!”

Aurelia turned her head instinctively, seeing that Zachary from her math class was waving her over from behind the counter. He had a tendency to text her late at night asking for the answers to the homework, but other than that, he was relatively good-natured. He at least cracked jokes in her direction and made her laugh sometimes, with his dorky smile and overzealous mannerisms in class.

_ Zachary Criss, at a party,  _ not  _ singing karaoke? _

“Hey, Zach,” Aurelia called back, not really caring that he got her name wrong again. She walked back up to the island countertop so she could hear him better, climbing up to sit on one of the black stools. 

He was leaning over the surface with another goofy smile on his mouth, this time letting his pearly teeth shine through. “What’s a girl like you doin’ here, Trig?”

“With my friend.” The word felt foreign in Aurelia’s mouth as she jabbed a thumb behind her shoulder towards the back sliding door. If anything, Zach was more of a friend to her than Kristen, but growing up with parents as close friends would fuse any two people together.

Zach peered over in the direction she’d pointed, but Kristen was too far away to pick out from the crowd of kids surrounding the pool. He shrugged his shoulders, turning around to retrieve another platter of fresh brownies from the oven. A few boys cheered from beside Aurelia, and Zach took a playful bow, drawing a rare laugh from her lips.

“Alright, lady and gents, dig in! But be careful, these are extra special, so Jace tells me,” he said, proudly presenting the treats to the boys first since they were so enthusiastic. He shot Aurelia an apologetic look from under his dark curls, making her chuckle again. 

_ He’s the only guy who deserves rights at this party. _

She smiled back. “You think Jace would be mad at me if I took one?” 

Zach gasped dramatically, setting a brownie on a napkin, and then onto a paper plate, white crisp against the deep brown of the chocolate. “Absolutely not!” he exclaimed. “Go on, taste it. I made them, and the sous-chef has ultimate say over who consumes his treats.”

_ Sous-chefs are second-in-command, but I appreciate his effort. _

Aurelia picked up the square (a corner piece, which she was eternally grateful for) and took a careful bite of it, humming happily at the explosion of sweetness on her tongue. It’d been so long since she last had anything like this, not since her dad’s wedding a few months ago. 

She finished it quickly, as was a habit of hers when she got her claws on a good piece of food. This time, it was Zach’s turn to laugh, reaching over the table to push another brownie in her direction. He waited a bit while she munched down ravenously. “Good?”

“ _ So _ good. Did you put crack in these or something?”

Zach guffawed. “Yeah, actually!”

Aurelia froze. She had just barely finished scarfing down the second brownie when he said this, and the blood in her veins went cold. She lifted her gaze from her hands up to Zach’s freckled face, swallowing the last bite and feeling it go down her throat like a rock.

“... What?”

He looked down at her, noticed her ashen face, and blinked a couple of times. Zach hurriedly shook his head, reaching out to lightly touch her wrist. “Oh, god, no, Aurelia. Not literally. Oh my god, somebody should get you a mirror, you look like you’re gonna puke!” he cried out, giggling. “Oh, Jesus. No, no. Not literally!”

A twelve-ton weight was lifted from her shoulders, and she deflated in her seat. 

_ Oh, thank fucking God. _

“Oh my— Zach! Jesus, I got so fucking scared!” Aurelia pushed on his arm from across the table, and he let out yet another stupid laugh, throwing his head back. 

It was at that moment that she noticed that his neck had a few purple-red spots crawling up his Adam’s apple and sneaking past the collar of his T-shirt. The marks were flush even against his tan skin, and Aurelia felt a tiny, cold fist clench her heart.

_ Why do I care if he has a couple of hickeys on his throat? He’s a popular teenage boy, that’s kind of to be expected.  _

Zach’s eyes caught on hers and he shrugged it off, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Hah, relax, Amelia. It’s not even yellow sunshine, you’ll be fine— it’s just a little bit of grass. Chillax.”

_ … What the fuck? _

“What… the fuck?” she echoed. “What do you mean  _ a little bit of grass _ ?”

Now, Zach looked confused. He stared at her, and then down at the empty plate. He pushed a hand through his thick hair, color draining from his flushed cheeks. He looked like he was having an epiphany, and not a very pleasant one at that. “Oh… fuck.”

“What?” repeated Aurelia, brows furrowing in frustration. “What did you put in these brownies?”

_ Spit it out already! _

The boys sitting to Aurelia’s left snickered while they listened to this less-than-friendly exchange, but quickly quieted when they were faced with a glare. 

“I… okay, sorry, um… ah. This is gonna sound really fucking bad— you’ve never taken anything, right? Ever? Not even weed or LSD?” Zach finally asked, pearls of sweat trickling down his temple.

Oh god. There was definitely something in those brownies.

Aurelia’s jaw tightened. “No,” she answered, pushing her bangs back. “Nothing.”

“Okay, well, this isn’t the best situation to have your first high in. I— Jace told me he put weed in the brownie mix earlier. Literally everyone here has tried it, everyone but… you, I guess. I-I just assumed— God, I’m sorry. I’m terrible; I should have asked—”

Aurelia leaned forward and slumped her forehead against the countertop, groaning lowly.  _ Great. Just great. Now I’m gonna start tripping when Kristen assigned me as her designated driver.  _

“Hey, hey, are you good?” Zach asked worriedly, tapping his finger on the top of her black hair. 

She snapped her head up and spooked him into jumping back, hands raised non-threateningly. “Okay, okay! Uh… How do you feel? Did you eat anything before coming? How much do you weigh?”

His questions were messing with Aurelia’s already swimming head. Her petite frame surely couldn’t handle the two brownies she’d eaten, and she tried not to make it a habit to eat at her mother’s house, since the only thing she could cook was cereal and sandwiches, unless they had anything smeared on them.

“No,” Aurelia spoke, before resting her head again on the countertop. She felt like she was climbing a ladder toward weightlessness, lifting slowly and of someone else’s volition. Her hair felt like vines dangling from a jungle ceiling, obstacles in her way.

_ Where am I going? _

“... Aurelia? Who’d you come here with?”

“Friend.”

“No, no, you said that already. Who  _ exactly  _ did you come here with? Do I know them? Do… do you have someone I can call or something? Maybe a DD?”

“I need to.”

Zach visibly frowned, and Aurelia lifted her head once more. She felt her stomach tighten, and she shifted in her seat. “You need to what? God, weed doesn’t usually take effect this quickly, even with… skinny people. Fucking  _ Jace _ .”

She stared at him for a few moments, eyelids feeling heavy. Her eyelashes felt like itchy spider legs crawling on her corneas. 

_ That was a compliment… I think. _

“... Pee.” The word felt slow and slimy between her teeth, like goop. Her eyes caught on the brownies on a tray behind Zach, and she glared daggers into the oh-so-delectable sweet desserts.  _ Little assholes. _

His eyes crinkled with a smile; he was probably proud that he could get some sort of idea of what Aurelia wanted/needed right now. Zach ushered the remaining boys in the kitchen out the back door so he could take her by the arm and gently lift her up off the stool. “I can take you to the bathroom if you want.”

Aurelia’s neck twisted around painfully so she could watch them leave the room, eyes darting to the outside. From this angle, she could faintly make out the scene: scantily-clad teen bodies (could you count them as scantily-clad if they were wearing swimsuits?) soaking wet and laughing, red faces. Someone had pulled an oversized speaker outside, and people were dancing along to some sort of  _ really  _ loud pop music. Aurelia had definitely heard this tune on the radio. Flashes of bright purple and startling cerulean popped under the water and around her vision. It was all insanely beautiful and shockingly ugly at the same time. Too much.

_ My eyes hurt _ .  _ So do my ears. Too much. _

Aurelia suddenly became hyper-aware of Zach’s calloused hand wrapped around her forearm. She yanked it away, breaths heavy and heartbeat quickening. He stepped back, arms lifted again to show he meant no harm.

“Hey! Relax, you’re fine. I’m not gonna hurt you or anything; this house is just a fucking nightmare to maneuver, especially when you’re high. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience,” he laughed anxiously, scratching his scalp. 

The noise echoed through the kitchen and Aurelia winced. 

_ God. _

“I’ll find it,” she told him, wagging a finger in his direction and scrunching up her nose. She didn’t want anything to do with him, not after she realized he was to blame for her heightened senses and her God-awful balance.

Zach, again, tried to grab Aurelia’s wrist to keep her steady, but she shoved his hand away with an uncharacteristic middle finger in his face. “Fuck off! I said  _ don’t touch me _ !”

He sighed exasperatedly. “Okay, okay! Just… the bathroom’s up the stairs, third door to the left. Please be careful.”

“And don’t even  _ think _ … about following me!” Aurelia told him, practically yelling at this point. She turned around and stumbled through the living room. 

Here she was, back in the jungle. Bodies were trees, except the trees were swaying and swatting at her with their branches. Green spots danced wildly in her vision but she pushed them and the partygoers aside long enough to reach the stairwell near the front door of the house. 

_ Mission accomplished. Now… left. Right? _

Aurelia whipped her head to look behind herself, making sure that Zach wasn’t following her. She actually couldn’t tell if he was or not, but she hoped he wasn’t. She managed to put one foot in front of the other, all three limbs wobbling up the steps. 

_ Thank God for a fucking railing.  _

After what felt like four hours (was time moving slowly or quickly?), Aurelia finally reached the top of the stairs. She leaned on the left wall for support, inhaling sharply and feeling a stab in her lungs. The doors looked like dominoes, trembling against their frames from the heavy beats of the music outside. The wood looked like it was going to crack. 

Eventually, she reached what most certainly wasn’t the third door, sweaty fingers trying to grab the doorknob and yank it open. She twisted it both left and right (and somehow up and down?) until she finally managed to shove the pristinely white door open.

_ … This definitely isn’t the bathroom. _

What Aurelia was faced with was a blond boy, definitely taller than herself, in what seemed to be his bedroom. In any other situation, she would have been able to focus on the posters littering his red walls, or the guitar leaning up against his desk on the other side of the room.

But in this situation, all Aurelia could focus on was the half-naked girl he was leaning over on his bed. Her hair was auburn brown, possibly dyed, the same color as her cheeks and ears and bra. Her arms were splayed on either side of her body, palms facing upwards just like her chin. She seemed powerless against the harsh groping and seemingly  _ painful  _ kisses pressed into her throat and shoulders. Her eyes were closed,  _ almost,  _ half lidded and staring up at the ceiling. She was pinned down by the weight of the boy on top of her, who was definitely ten times more sober than her and taking great advantage of it. He was all red and sharp corners, stabbing into the girl with all his might. His belt was unbuckled, jeans shoved down past his knees. She wasn’t quiet, either, letting out small and pathetic noises akin to that of a dying deer.

Aurelia’s mouth shriveled up like the Sahara Desert. 

_ This is not the bathroom. _

The boy’s head turned and he locked eyes with Aurelia. Blue clashed with brown and oh, dear  _ God _ . Her lungs started to ache again, a familiar feeling, and her nose filled with the acrid scent of  _ smoke, smoke, smoke. _

Jace.

She took a step back, hand still on the golden doorknob even as she slammed it shut. The noise was like a gunshot, ringing in her ears and sending her brain into a mish-mash of dizzying and terrifying bouncing off the walls. It hurt to breathe, to swallow, to blink.

**_I need to get out of here._ ** __

“Hey, wait!”

His voice was a knife in her gut, shooting through the door. She heard footsteps, rushing footsteps.

Aurelia turned on her heel as quickly as she could, hurrying down the way she came. The stairs became quicksand in the jungle, each carpeted step grabbing her ankle and tugging her down into the floor;  **down** , it urged.

“Stop! Hey, c’mon!”

He had the audacity to fucking  _ laugh _ , as if trying to play it off like a big joke. It was all a big joke to him. Her heart was pounding against her frail ribcage, sending possible solutions up to her brain.

_ I’ll call the police when I get out of here. I’ve gotta find Kristen—  _ **_Zach_ ** _. Zach will believe me, I need to get out of here and find my stupid phone and Zach _

The front door seemed so close but so damn far at the same time, the living room a hall of mirrors full of cackling clowns with red noses and oversized gloves, reaching out to grab her by the shirt, by the back pocket, by anything they could grab.

His footsteps were getting louder, thuds against the ground more jarring than The Weeknd’s heavy bass beats coming from the TV.

Aurelia’s arm reached out. She could feel the knob around her fist already, clenched tightly and damp from her overflowing perspiration. It would feel cold, refreshing, a breath of fresh air from this sweltering party. She would burst through the wooden frame like a hero, probably sprinting all the way home without trying to find Zach or Kristen or anyone. She just needed a few more seconds.

* * *

Quiet. Aurelia could faintly hear song lyrics drifting through the air, could see the graphic words through the pitch-black:

_ You don’t have to run, I know what you’ve been through. _

Through the music, there was an ear-shattering splash, the sound gripping her by the throat and squeezing until her lungs were no more. The bright pops of chartreuse and vermilion had returned, sashaying in her deteriorating vision as if taunting her. They floated up in bubbles, and she was surrounded by waves of blue.

Blue, and then black.  _ Nothing _ .


	2. empty bottles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> girl never wakes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNING: SEXUAL ABUSE, IMPLIED DRUG ABUSE, EXPLICIT VIOLENCE/GORE, DEATH

The sun pierced through Aurelia’s eyelids, tinged by a pale blue tint. She could see her veins through the flesh, and her brows furrowed. The searing and sudden pain made her lashes flutter, and now, her brown eyes were gazing upwards.

Though there were stringy clouds in the sky, the sun was just starting to peek through. Her vision had drops of water in it, as if it had started to rain just on her corneas.

Her nostrils filled with a rancid smell, and she scrunched it up. 

**Jesus.**

Slowly, she sat up, peeling herself off the cement underneath. Her head was pounding, rattling her brain left, right, up, down, and diagonally inside her skull. Aurelia clutched at her temples and drew her knees to her chest, burying her forehead against her soaked jeans. 

**Wait.** **_Soaked?_ **

She jolted back, scrambling to stand. Her legs felt like jelly wobbling in her clothes— her very distinctly  _ wet _ clothes. Aurelia started to pat herself down, noticing that her black t-shirt, like the rest of her clothes, was drenched in what smelled like chlorine. Her hair was dripping on the concrete, creating dark marks on the surface. Her shoes were gone, and she was left in her once white socks turned gray. 

**What… the** **_fuck?_ **

Suddenly, Aurelia began to cough sharply, some form of liquid bubbling up from her lungs and into her throat. She doubled over, gripping her stomach and splaying a hand on the wall of the house. After a bit of heaving, she managed to spit out a watery, crimson substance, with bits and pieces of…

**What is that?**

She leaned closer, trying to inspect what she had just vomited, before she nearly threw up again. “Oh,  _ God! _ ” 

**Teeth! They’re fucking** **_teeth!_ ** **Jesus Christ!**

Panting, Aurelia wiped the side of her mouth with the back of her wrist, trying to keep her eyes off what she had just spit out. She lifted her head and caught a glimpse of her reflection in a window. 

She looked ghoulish. Her once olive toned skin had lost its natural flush; her cheekbones had sunk like a lost ship at sea. Aurelia’s brown eyes looked glassy, like a doll’s.

**A pretty ugly doll.**

The smear of red decorating the side of her jaw wasn’t doing her any favors. It looked like she had split it open. 

Aurelia decided to head back into the house to wash herself off. She stepped over an empty bottle of beer, noticing that the villa was empty. Most of the partygoers were outside, scattered around the pool like dead flies. The scene was eerie, and gave her chills.

Zach was nowhere to be seen. She arrived at the kitchen sink much too lavish for a high school party, and washed her face off. Despite turning the ‘hot’ knob all the way up and the ‘cold’ all the way down, what came out of the faucet was ice, dripping down her face.

She had cottonmouth. What felt like slick oil coated the roof of her mouth and yet, it was dry, dry, dry. Aurelia parted her chapped lips to try and drink some of the water.

“Ah!” She spit it back out immediately, coughing and stumbling backwards into the metal refrigerator. The liquid was acid in her mouth, burning her tongue and tasting like radioactive vinegar.

“For fuck’s sake,” Aurelia groaned quietly, crossing her arms and holding them close. She stepped back down the cement stairs she had woken up on, taking note of the rest of the students. Some were slumped over in chairs, others collapsed on the floor. 

It was a sort of depressing sight, though the sun emerged slowly and beat down on their bodies. It illuminated the still, glassy water of the pool, and Aurelia couldn’t help but smile at the pop of pink the flamingo floatie offered, the sharp yellow of the duck, or the darkness of black fabric floating to the surface.

**… Wait.**

Aurelia moved closer— the black led her eyes to a shirt which led her eyes to a torso connected to a body. She got on her knees— long, inky hair rippled through the water, pale arms draped below a body and

**o h m y g o d o h my god oh mygod**

She let out a hellish scream, stumbling and falling  _ hard _ on her back. The cobblestone acted like an infernal trampoline, bouncing her off the surface and hitting her over and over. Aurelia tried to get away, tried to erase the image of the body floating in the deep end of the pool, but it was locked behind her eyelids. She curled up into a ball on the stairs, sobbing into her knees right where she had woken up. 

Time passed. She didn’t know how much, but it definitely did. Yawning came from inside the house, like a muffled roar ringing in Aurelia’s waterlogged ears. She lifted her head, watching as a blurry figure climbed down the stairs at the corner of the home, heading her direction.

**hide**

Aurelia got off of the stairs and concealed herself around the side of the house, leaning against the wall. She heard footsteps climbing down the concrete and stayed as silent as she could, covering her mouth to muffle the heavy breaths that threatened to reveal her.

**i have to get out of here**

She turned her head and watched as a blond teen emerged, heading straight for the pool. He was making a beeline, like he knew what was inside and needed to take care of it. 

Aurelia could recognize that boy anywhere. The image of his frustrated yet concentrated face burned jagged edges into her brain, seeping into every pore and oh,  _ God _ , the sounds the girl was making—

_ The girl. _

She glanced up towards Jace’s bedroom, as if she could see through the creaking and swaying wood of the house. Aurelia wondered if the girl was still there, hopeless, reaching out and begging for help. She felt a pang of guilt drum against her heart.

Quiet splashing jolted her out of her intoxicating thoughts. Aurelia looked back at the pool; at this angle, she saw the back of him. His body was leaning over in the same position she was, except his hands were paddling through the water, pushing aside some floaties and trying to grab something. 

**the body**

Aurelia felt her face flood with stark fury, burning white-hot. She was shaking in her socks and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. And then she remembered. 

_ The  _ Jace Hawthorn, captain of the basketball team, student body vice president, and  _ Kristen’s  _ biggest fucking crush, was a rapist.

The impact of the word hit her hard, just like the memories.

**rapist**

She gripped her rattling head between her hands, wincing at the physical pain she felt thinking about it. Aurelia tried to keep her eyes on Jace, afraid of what he would do to the dead girl in his pool. 

With a few grunts of effort, he took hold of her arm, pale flesh putty in his hands, and harshly yanked. Aurelia let out a choked whimper from behind her palm as she heard a few cracks echo around the backyard, popping and clicking like fireworks.

She had to force herself to look away, taking a deep breath, before looking back. Now, Jace was managing to pull the girl up onto the rim of the pool, breathing a low “fuck” and leaning back in exasperation. He ran all ten of his dirty fingers through his dirty hair. His cheeks were just as chalky as Aurelia’s. 

Now, the “fuck” he let out was louder, frustrated, filled with a tightness she could feel plunging into her chest and down her toes.

That, not the scream Aurelia had let out earlier, woke  _ them _ up. 

The first person to stir was a shirtless guy doused in some sticky-looking liquid. He pushed himself up from his lounging chair, rubbing his face and looking around. He spotted Jace from the other side of the pool, waving his arm and calling to him.

“Ah, Jace! What’s up? Oh,  _ jeez _ , I got a killer headache.” He stood, wobbly but upright nonetheless. 

Jace looked up. Aurelia couldn’t see his face, but she felt murder radiating off of him, masked by his fake fucking cool guy persona. 

The boy’s call woke the girl at his feet, and her rustling startled her best friend, whom she was laying on. They were dominoes tumbling, unable to slow or stop waking.

He acted quickly.

Jace stood and greeted his sleepy guests after pushing the girl’s body onto her stomach. This way, no one could see her face. He nudged her legs so they curled up, and, just like that, she seemed asleep.

“Hey!” he said, clapping a few boys on their shoulder and laughing along with them. Their conversation muddled into meaningless jabber, floating through one ear and out the other. They were all the same, just blurry, half-naked bodies too hazed to look around, to just  _ look _ .

She was right there, draped over the cement, lifeless, and no one  _ saw. _

Eventually, just as Aurelia expected, Jace managed to usher everyone out from his backyard. They exited through the fence gate to the right of the pool, and she swore more than a few people would have seen her, but no one batted an eye. They snorted at the jokes they cracked, slung arms around each other’s shoulders, and hung off each other’s bodies like curtains in front of a window.

They were carefree, and ignorant.

Aurelia heard Jace rush back toward the stairs leading into his home as soon as the last hungover girl stumbled through the fence. Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, leather shoes scraping against the ground like a car’s tires on the road.

“Hey.”

Aurelia perked up. That voice… it wasn’t Jace’s. Maybe more people were inside the house, maybe they would pick up on what he did, call the police, check on the girl upstairs, do  _ something _ —

“Hey, good morning, man. Is Kristen in the house?”

“Yeah, she’s just looking around for Aurelia. Have you seen her? She was tripping balls last night- I don’t know what you put in those brownies, but it didn’t look like she was just high on pot. What else did you put in the mix?”

**Zach.**

“What the fuck are you talking about? If I put anything other than what I said I put in there, wouldn’t everybody else be tripping, too?”

A beat of silence. Aurelia took in a breath. 

Slowly, Zach started to speak again. There was an accusing edge to his tone. “How do you know they weren’t?”

“I mean, I didn’t  _ see  _ anyone else tweaking out.”

“You didn’t see anyone  _ at all _ , Jace, you were cooped up in your room, probably smoking your ass off. Did you see her last night? I couldn’t find her after she said she was going to the bathroom.”

“No, man, the last time I saw her, she was coming out here to—”

“Who’s that?”

Another beat of silence. This one was filled with tension, like a glass of water on the edge of a table about to tip over.

“... What?”

“Move, dude.”

Aurelia heard a bit of movement, an indignant huff coming from Jace and fabric rustling. Her heart was pounding too hard to let her peek around the corner, terrified out of her muscles that they would catch her, round her up like a poor rabbit and hang her by the feet on the clothesline across the pool. 

“What the fuck… Hey, wake up— oh  _ shit _ !” A sharp shout escaped Zach’s mouth, voice suddenly muffled by skin. “Mm- get  _ off  _ me!”

“Shut the fuck up, dude, she’ll hear you!” 

Aurelia heard a struggle, and she knew Zach had realized that the girl on the floor wasn’t sleeping. Skin hit skin, and feet tumbled on the ground. 

“You killed her! You killed her, Jace, what the  _ fuck _ ?! She has a family, dude, she has a mom and a dad and a fucking  _ brother _ !”

More fists on flesh. These blows were harder than before, the sound itself desperate.

“Relax! Relax, Jesus Christ, I didn’t  _ kill  _ her, I didn’t—”

“What’s going on, Zach?”

Another voice. This time, it was lilted, feminine, high-pitched. It rang a few soft bells in Aurelia’s head, and it made her freeze up to think of another girl in Jace’s presence, especially one she recognized. 

**kristen**

There was more pushing, and a sharp gasp from her throat. Kristen let out a shrill and blood-curdling scream, so ear-shattering that Aurelia flinched and covered her ears. It was quickly cut off though, just like Zach’s.

“ _ Shut the fuck up! _ ” Jace hissed. More shoving and hitting.

“Don’t touch her, dude!”

“Fuck off! Listen. I can explain, it’s not- I didn’t kill her, stop… stop fucking  _ looking at me like that _ ! Look. She… She walked in on me, upstairs, okay? I was busy with a chick, but she wanted to hang. I— Zach, don’t touch her, Jesus, you’re a fucking creep— We smoked a couple blunts, and then we went down to fuck around in the swimming pool. I don’t remember what happened after, I-I… She probably just fell in and couldn’t swim out or something. Maybe the grass had her fucked up or something.”

Aurelia felt a chill run down her spine. She slowly turned, pebbles lining the muscles in her throat, and leaned over the corner of the wall so she could actually get a look at the teenagers having their heated conversation. 

**there’s no fucking way**

They were arranged like a triangle, Zach and Kristen standing side by side and near the body. Jace was on the defensive, halfway through the kitchen doorway. She shouldn’t have, but Aurelia stepped out from her hiding spot. 

Though they were facing her, neither Zach nor Kristen batted an eyelash in her direction. She was cellophane, wobbling in the air. Simultaneously, she realized she was also the dead girl on the floor.

Aurelia couldn’t put words to the emotions bubbling up in her chest as she took steps closer. They were a mix of confusion and anger, but most of all, dread. She felt like she was pushing through a crowd of people to get to a car crash, to see the roadkill damaged on the cement. 

Yellow tape burst from the cracks in the ground like dandelions, entangling Aurelia’s cold, dead feet and pulling them down. This was not possible.

She dropped to her knees, crawling forward and clutching the dead body’s arm. She inspected closely, the contact icy. Her pale skin was cut by bruises. Blooming veins like spiderwebs crawled up her wrists, strangling them. Her shirt was barely clinging to her doused shoulders. She could see her once white, now gray, bra peeking through and riding up on her collarbone. Her eyes were clouded, engorged and wide, staring at nothing. The brown had dulled to gray.

All Aurelia wanted was to cover her up, with a blanket, with a flamingo floatie, with fucking  _ anything,  _ but her bony fingers passed through her flesh as soon as the thought crossed her mind.

She was cellophane, floating against the concrete. 

**the dead girl in the pool.**

“ _ Fuck! _ ” Aurelia finally shouted, slapping her fists against the cement beside her body’s head. She pushed herself down to lay beside it, curled up in the same position. She didn’t want this to happen, she didn’t understand how it  _ could  _ happen, but here she was, clawing to hold onto her own body but unable to. The sobs that escaped her lips went unnoticed by the teens looming above her, one in particular wearing the crown of her Bogeyman.

Jace breathed lowly. “... Fuck.” He pushed his yellow hair back out of his face and stared at her body.

Zach pulled his phone out of his pocket, wrapping an arm tightly around Kristen’s shoulders and holding her against his side. Suddenly, Jace snatched it out of his hands, holding it just out of reach.

“Hey! Dude, what the fuck?! We have to call somebody!”

“We’re not calling anyone, just chill the fuck out.”

“ _ Chill out _ ? There’s a  _ dead  _ girl—”

“Keep your voice down!” Jace inhaled exasperatedly. The sound bit Aurelia’s ears and she curled up tighter. “Look… Look, we’re not calling anyone. We’re… We’re gonna take care of this,  _ us _ . I’ve got some tools in the back shed that we can use to make moving her easier, and my parents wanted to clear a plot for these new stupid… flowers, or whatever. It’s not hard, I-I’ve done it before, and you have, too, and—”

“Woah, woah, woah. You are  _ not  _ fucking suggesting what I think you are.”

“You’re  _ insane _ !” Kristen cried out. Aurelia lifted her head at the sound of her desperate and horrified voice, staring at her expression. 

Jace groaned and lifted his hands in annoyance, shaking them. “Just fucking listen to me! I know what I’m doing. Just help me out and we won’t talk about this ever again. We can… we can say that she ran off or something, rambling about how she wanted to go to California or… something.” 

“You said you didn’t kill her! Why don’t you just tell the cops that?”

“You really think the  _ cops  _ are gonna believe that? My parents have them in their fucking pockets but not that deep! If they find her here, with  _ our  _ fingerprints all over her body, we’ll lose everything.” 

He turned to Kristen. “You’re already on thin ice with the cops ever since the shit you pulled under the bleachers. And you,” he looked to Zach, waving his phone in his face, “you’ve got it made, pretty boy. You got a fucking  _ scholarship  _ to  _ Neumont _ . If the cops get wind of this, your life is fucking ruined, your  _ mom’s  _ life is ruined. You got four sisters and no dad, you’re most of your family’s income, for fuck’s sake—”

A hard slap reverberated through the backyard. Heavy breathing came from all three kids.

**that’s all they are. k i d s .**

“You think I don’t  _ know  _ that?” Zach panted, shaking out his fist. “Jesus. Sorry, sorry, I just…”

Jace raised a hand. His head bobbed left to right, and he looked at Kristen. He didn’t need verbal approval from Zach; their tight friendship wasn’t something anyone ever questioned. Zach would follow him anywhere.

Kristen took a trembling breath in and out. Her thin frame was chattering like an autumn leaf, but she nodded. The three moved in slow motion, all taking turns to grab a different limb: a leg for Kristen, another for Zach, and an arm for Jace.

Aurelia reached out, trying to grab onto her own shoulders, to pull her body back down. She wanted to scream “no” at them, to shove them aside, to smash their brains in on the sidewalk, but the words did not emerge. Her hands fell through the skin like sand. The sound of her heart and lungs collapsing rattled in her eardrums.

They dragged her body across the grass and towards the shed near the back of the backyard. Aurelia almost couldn’t get to her feet; the effort drained her decaying muscles more than she could fathom.

She managed it, though, and stared across the dreaded pool as Jace unlocked the shed and rummaged inside for the aforementioned ‘tools’. 

**weapons**

Aurelia watched as Zach and Kristen reluctantly followed in his footsteps. They each took hold of a hand saw that Jace had handed them with a grimace.

“You’re kidding,” Kristen moaned, hands visibly shaking and fingers pale as they wrapped around the rusty handle. The dark clouds had returned, gloom settling over them like a heavy blanket. 

In the midst of it all, Aurelia looked up and closed her eyes. She could feel wetness engulf her cheeks, but when she opened her eyes again, there was no rain. She reached up and touched the sunken bones of her face, thumbs fitting snugly into the cracks and crevices. She stayed in this position, head tilted up, and she could almost drown out the sounds the teenagers were making across the water.

_ Almost. _

They were wretched, gut-wrenching noises. Through her muffled ears, Aurelia could picture it: Kristen’s soft cries and whimpers as the sharp blade cut through sinewy tissue and hacked at bone. Zach was probably patting her shoulder and doing as much as he could to comfort her. She couldn’t hear him doing anything, not until she heard a quiet smack against skin.

“C’mon, dude! You’re leaving all the work to us.”

“Don’t fucking  _ touch  _ me. You might be able to fool Kristen because she looks at you through rose-colored glasses, but not me, Jace.  _ Jesus.  _ What the fuck are your parents gonna say when they find out?”

“They’re not going to,” Jace replied simply. “Dude, I wasn’t even supposed to be having this party.”

Aurelia could taste the sourness in his breath. She  _ felt  _ him, right in front of her. He was slipping his coarse hands up her sides and through her tangled, dark hair. He held on tightly, with no plans of letting go, and suddenly, he was on top of her again.

Or… was she on top? Maybe it was her, slumped against his body like a ragdoll while he held her by the neck and forced more chocolate down her throat. Aurelia knew he had touched her, at least around the waist judging by the tender bruises she could feel forming. She just couldn’t remember to what extent.

It was not raining. She was crying.

Grunts came from the three, and Aurelia opened her eyes to finally look. Now, she didn’t just see figments of her imagination— this was real. Zach and Jace were taking turns digging into the ground with a heavy-looking shovel. They had already finished, which led Aurelia to wonder how long she had been standing there. They had cut into the grass deeply, deep enough to leave space above…

**me.**

Kristen huffed as she unloaded a bloodied and serrated arm into the hole. The boys got to work helping her. “When… When are your parents supposed to get home?” she asked, avoiding eye contact as much as possible.

“Mmph. They never give me a straight answer. From past experience, I can safely say that they’ll be out at least another week. That’s, like, how long it takes moms to fuck a younger dude and dads to throttle their necks, right?”

Silence. From what she could tell in the tensing of Zach’s eyebrow or Kristen’s fists, she knew Jace wasn’t a stranger to delivering harsh comments. His friends weren’t strangers to hearing them, either.

“... Whatever. They’ll be back in a while. It gives us enough time to cover this shit up and get cleaned off. Is anyone else in the house?”

In an instant, all four of their heads snapped toward the villa, up at the second floor. It seemed the girl wasn’t a secret after all. 

“Just Rose,” Zach replied, voice tight and somber. “Well… she was. She came out of your room after you went outside and just left out the front door.”

“Did she see anything?”

Everyone was quiet, in awe that Jace could dismiss what she— what  _ Rose _ — had just woken up from. He was interested in how her actions affected  _ him _ , and not the other way around. 

“... No.”

“Good. Zach, just… talk to her on Monday, in, what, chem? Make sure she keeps her mouth shut. Mention Julia.”

Zach didn’t reply. The three resumed their God-awful task, shoving the decaying and sopping bits of Aurelia’s body into the hole they’d dug. When they finished, the air was metallic on her tongue, and cataclysmic soil filled a layer above the chopped remains.

“Kristen.”

She snapped to attention while she stood in front of the vandalized grave, wincing. “What?”

“Are her parents gonna believe us if we say she ran off?”

“I-I… Yeah. Well… her dad’s not gonna care, he’s off somewhere in Cancún with his wife and her kid. She and her mom have been going through a rough patch lately, and she’s snuck out of the house a few times. She won’t go looking.”

Aurelia’s chin lifted. Her eyes darted to stare at Kristen, dead on, and for just a second, she could swear that she had looked back at her and really  _ seen  _ her.

_ She’s lying.  _

“Great,” Jace sighed in relief, buying her words. He ran his hand through his hair, streaking it with red. He seemed both experienced and careless at the same time; this was not his first time covering up something as bad as murder, and certainly not something as bad as rape. 

He looked back towards them, gesturing so they could follow him into the house. “I’ve got some cleaning shit in the closet,” Jace started explaining, voice carried by the wind and drifting far, far away. 

As they passed, Aurelia wanted so desperately to hold on. She reached out, fingers outstretched and trying to snag a bit of Kristen’s shirt, Zach’s shoulder,  _ anything _ . Her translucent flesh melted through theirs like she was nothing. 

This wasn’t like the movies at all; they didn’t feel a soft gust of air and turn their heads, curiously investigating a quiet whisper speaking their name. Aurelia was screaming, protests rippling against her vocal folds and hands clawing at their bodies, but it was all to no avail. 

Her heart splintered all over again. She watched Zachary Criss and Kristen Abraham, the only two people she might have considered friends in life, abandon her six feet underground.

In an instant, Aurelia found her body draped over the carmine-stained grass where she was laid to ‘rest’. Her fingers clutched at the soil. She pressed her hollow cheek against it, desperate to feel the Earth beating against her skin. She needed to touch something alive, something stable, something  _ real _ .

Images and sounds pressed up against her skull. A bright, golden flash of light faded to reveal a feminine smiling face, cheeks round, warm, and freckled. Locks of deep, brown hair tumbled down her shoulders in braids, and the sun sparkled in her eyes. Laughter filled her brain like a melody, and her mother’s embrace was her harmony. Aurelia curled up tighter into herself, keeping her knees pressed against her chest. 

“Lia! Babygirl, what’s wrong?” She sounded like a fairytale, a twinkling bell chiming.

_ She’s so silly. She knows what’s wrong. _

“What? The food not up to your standards, little lady?” She laughed once more, slipping her fingers against Aurelia’s cheeks and holding her gently so they could press their foreheads together.

She could feel her heartbeat. Even with her eyes closed, Aurelia could draw the constellations written in the freckles decorating her mother’s calloused skin. She wrapped her own arms around her and, for the first time since entering the house last night, she felt something alive between her fingertips. 

“Alright, alright. What do you say we get you some type of sandwich? Hm? Something even Mama can’t mess up.”

Aurelia’s heart ached at that. She clutched at her dress a little tighter, wanting to be held just a little longer. She shook her head.

Mama patted her back, gently and soothingly rubbing circles into her quivering and cracked muscles. “Alright, baby. We’ll stay a little longer here, just you and me.”


End file.
